cover image Death on Nantucket

Death on Nantucket

Francine Mathews. Soho Crime, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-61695-737-7

Last seen in 1998’s Death in a Cold Hard Light, police detective Meredith “Merry” Folger is trying to finalize the details of her wedding as the Fourth of July approaches, in Mathews’s intriguing fifth mystery set on Nantucket. When a body is found on the widow’s walk of the house belonging to famed retired foreign correspondent Spencer Murphy, the hordes of summer tourists make investigating the death even more difficult for Merry. The victim, discovered weeks after her death, is identified as Nora, Spencer’s estranged daughter. Was Nora’s death an accident or murder? The dysfunctional Murphy clan and their long-held grudges against each other present Merry with multiple suspects, each with a motive. Complicating the investigation is Spencer’s dementia. A second murder leads Merry’s investigation into Spenser’s background as a journalist. Has the past finally caught up with the globe-trotting journalist? Mathews takes readers on a holiday tour with an ocean view, complete with a murder mystery as twisted as the emotions that family can evoke. [em]Agent: Raphael Sagalyn, Sagalyn Literary Agency. (June) [/em]